Modeling of Ethylene Polymerization with Zirconocene Catalyst and Estimation of Kinetic Parameters using Differential Evolution Algorithm

Abstract

Zirconocene catalyzed olefin polymers have experienced radical attention owing to their unmatched properties and wide applications. Metallocene polyethylene (mPE) shows a narrow molecular weight distribution and a very homogeneous copolymer distribution. Kinetic model of the gas phase ethylene polymerization with silica supported (dimethylsilylene)bis(η5–inden–1–ylidene)zirconium dichloride catalyst and MAO as cocatalyst is proposed. Polymer molecular properties, viz. number average molecular weight ( ), weight average molecular weight ( ), and polydispersity index (PDI) are calculated using the method of moments. Kinetic parameters have been estimated using differential evolution (DE) approach of optimization.